Social network X refused to participate in the Inquiry, while the South African Media Editors Forum said digital companies should pay for news content.
On March 4, public hearings began in South Africa as part of the Competition Commission's Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry. On the first day of the hearings, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has asked the Commission to strongly consider getting big tech companies to look at fair compensation for using South African media content.
Sanef representatives said that technology companies use secret algorithms that dictate what news content gets shown through big tech companies’ digital platforms. They also pointed out that social network X (formerly Twitter) is the only major global platform that has refused to participate in the Inquiry.
“This is an unfortunate development and a missed opportunity as pointed out by Glenda Daniels, secretary-general of Sanef that misogyny, bullying, and harassment of women journalists was widespread on the platform. At the same time X has been unresponsive to calls to take down malicious content targeted at women journalists – including threats of rape, doxing and trolling,”
said a Sanef representative.
The panel does not find this position of X acceptable, as it denies us the ability to discuss and debate the submissions made by X Corp, and it denies the SA public and media the transparency and accountability, said James Hodge, the chief economist at the Competition Commission.
“We also find it somewhat ironic that X has taken this position given its own value proposition to users being ‘a real-time, global, open, public conversation platform where people can see every side of a topic, discover news, share their perspectives, and engage in discussion and debate,”
Hodge said.
Hodge added all other major digital platforms, including Google and Meta agreed to participate in the inquiry.
During the hearings, Sanef said its submission to the commission also included the provision of access to credible news as a public good should be considered as a human rights issue, not only as a matter of commercial competition.
“Transparency of algorithms and sharing of data related to news content and related advertising on platforms should be promoted, as well as access to data that publishers can use to promote and monetise their content,”
Sanef submitted.
Source: The Citizen
